~Beyond the Border~ > Mystia's Stored Games
(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 14)
DracoOmega:
>You are Nazrin, a newly inducted member of the Seeker's Guild, and you are dying. The stygian brands of the Blight scar your body, and your vision and vitality are failing, but perhaps not all hope is yet lost. If you can just retrieve the lunar orchid Yuuka requested and return it to her before the last of your strength fails you, you can still make it through this. Perhaps that's even possible.
>Your career got off to an interesting and busy start two weeks ago, between stolen cats, missing cattle, and sword-wielding fairies, but things took a much darker turn when an encounter with a wild spider youkai left you infected with a mysterious and deadly illness. Thanks to Minoriko's creative thinking and the power of an ancient sword found buried in the spider's lair, the Blight was kept at bay for a time, but it is reasserting itself with greater vigor each day, and you do not know how many more you have left.
>Your search for this cure has been a long and frustrating road, taking you from Braston to Val Razua to Isir's Cross and then into the depths of the wilderness beyond. You have tangled with sky pirates and obstructive bureaucrats, been stabbed and sliced open, fallen off a cliff, and even gotten cursed by a grimoire-wielding fairy. But you found it. After all that work, you finally uncovered the hidden garden you'd been seeking, the one place you could obtain the flower you need to save yourself.
>And then you were forced to turn around without it.
>The garden was everything you'd been led to believe ? beautiful almost beyond description ? but its keeper was heartless and indifferent to whether you lived or died. She offered the flower you needed only in exchange for bringing her one she did not already possess, and was deaf to your pleas that the disease could easily kill you before you return to her. But she could not be swayed, and so you are left to shoulder one final task: obtain a lunar orchid from the inner gardens of Eientei and return it to Yuuka, or die in the attempt.
--- Quote from: Wildsour on June 29, 2015, 11:35:39 PM --->Does it appear that any of the shops down there are open?
--- End quote ---
>You can only catch glimpses of what passes for a commercial area in this place, but you'd be surprised if there wasn't something still open. Of course, you're not getting that far into town without letting a whole lot of eyes rest upon you, which defeats half the purpose. But you suppose that even if it didn't help your situation here, it might still be useful to have for Val Razua.
Oldmansour:
>Is that winter coat of ours able to be tied around our waist to cover our legs, like these kids today do with lighter jackets?
>If so, use that to cover our legs, cloak to cover body, then head into town to try and find a trouser seller.
>And keep an eye open for ferry schedule postings along the way.
DracoOmega:
--- Quote from: Wildsour on June 30, 2015, 02:41:49 AM --->Is that winter coat of ours able to be tied around our waist to cover our legs, like these kids today do with lighter jackets?
>If so, use that to cover our legs, cloak to cover body, then head into town to try and find a trouser seller.
>And keep an eye open for ferry schedule postings along the way.
--- End quote ---
>It's really unpleasantly bulky to do this with, and it won't provide total obscuration, but you're not in a position to be too picky.
>You take out your coat, tie it around your waist so that the majority of the coat falls down over your legs, then don the cloak. You are now altogether too dressed for this weather and have to tread carefully simply to avoid tripping yourself up in your own coat, but at least if people stare at you, it will probably be for your fashion sense rather than your illness. Either that or they'll think you're the world's most conspicuous burgler. You try to move briskly enough not to give them too much time to ponder this subject.
>Unsurprisingly, stores are scarce in this town and visitors not much less; there's little you can do to keep from sticking out like a well-insulated sore thumb, and whispers follow you whenever you walk past people, but you do eventually make it to a modest outfitter's selling some too-large work pants in utilitarian brown. They're nearly as ugly as your current ensemble, but at least a little less conspicuous. You'd have to be twice as blind as you are to miss the pointed looks the shopkeeper keeps giving you, though.
>"Sure you're not too hot under all that?" he asks, fingering a mop tensely.
Oldmansour:
>"Least of my problems lately."
DracoOmega:
--- Quote from: Wildsour on June 30, 2015, 05:37:37 AM --->"Least of my problems lately."
--- End quote ---
>"I see." He looks unconvinced.